Panthers live and die on Newton's accuracy

Panthers live and die on Newton's accuracy

The Carolina Panthers pulled out a hard-fought victory over the Los Angeles Rams in Week 9, by a final score of 13-10. However, it could have been a blowout win if Newton played up to the MVP form we saw in 2015.

Often throwing high and wide despite decent protection for good stretches of the game, Newton placed balls in spots that were either uncatchable or didn’t allow his big receivers to earn extra yards. When Newton was accurate, we saw guys like tight end Greg Olsen and Kelvin Benjamin rumble for extra yardage. When Newton was off, drives stalled and allowed the Rams to stay in a game they had no business being competitive in.

With the defense suddenly showing a resurgence at pressuring the quarterback, Newton and the offense had good field position for most of the game. Unfortunately, they were unable to capitalize on it very often, punting on six of their 10 drives.

While Newton’s accuracy was barely enough to secure the team’s third win of the season, it won’t be enough against better teams still to come on Carolina’s schedule. In fact, had Los Angeles made all of their field goal attempts, it wouldn’t have been good enough on Sunday evening either.

Voiceover by Alex Sinatra.

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